As part of India’s ongoing assistance programmes in Palestine for strengthening its capacity building efforts focused on institutions, services and training of personnel, the Government of India has decided to enhance the number of ITEC training slots for Palestinian nationals from 100 to 150, starting from current financial year 2017-18. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, administered by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India was launched in Palestine in 1998 as a bilateral assistance programme and over the last two decades, about 900 Palestinians have undergone specialized training in various fields in different Indian institutes. As is well-known, the entire cost of training, including the return international airfare, tuition fees, accommodation, emergency medical treatment, stipend, book allowances, and study tour, is borne by the Government of India.

The ITEC training courses offer a unique opportunity to India to share and exchange its developmental experience, as well as expertise and knowledge, with friendly countries. Citizens from 161 partner countries have participated in various ITEC courses over the last 5 decades. In 2015-16 over 10,000 scholarship slots were allotted by Government of India in more than 47 training institutions for training courses in diverse subjects ranging from information technology, public administration, entrepreneurship, rural development, renewable energy, etc. India also assists ITEC partner countries in establishing useful infrastructure facilities with technology and skills appropriate to their resources and needs. In 2014, on the occasion of completion of 50 years of ITEC programme launched in 1964, Government of India introduced a fully online application procedure with the launch of new ITEC portal, www.itecgoi.in which provides the facility to participants to register themselves for their choice of courses and institutes and track the status of their applications. It also provides a platform for networking by the Alumni and Institutes.